Deadsponcelling
By Carly Robb and James Clair Lewis
Deadsponcelling Chapter 15
"Sorry, old pal." Metis punched the first Guard squarely on the point of his jaw, and laid him out cold. Then took his pistol.
Kali brought the hilt of her sword down on the other guard's head, and absconded with his pistol as well. "I think we have time now to round up the Wing and make our escape. I hope these two are not slain for their bravery." She headed immediately for the elevator, "Come on now! We don't have much time. When this is discovered, the whole Citadel will be hunting us!"
Tara grumbled, "Too bad my backpack's gone. I think a few shots of vodka would be acceptable once we get to safety. But getting to safety will be enough of a celebration." She took one last look around. "Um, Aleph, why don't you get in front of me, that way if someone sneaks up on us it'll be me getting a sword in my back and not you. You are our evidence of the truth. Lead on Kali."
Kali led them up the elevator to the floor where her Wing was ensconced. "Wake everybody up, and tell them to move it!" She turned to Tara, "I guess we are going to join the Rogues."
Tara looked at her and shook her head, "No, Kali, we're going to remove ourselves from the Rogues. I got to thinking about the dream a few days after it happened. I remembered being told that what I see is what my mind can comprehend. If I hadn't dreamt it the way I dreamt it I'd be dead right now, and no one would have believed me. I kept my mouth shut out of self preservation. I was with Semaj and the others when Nemeth fell. I knew it couldn't be them. I just hope we can find them."
Tara remembered the wine in her room, and went to get it. "Looks like we can still celebrate a bit." She took stock of what she had. "Just the clothes on my back, it looks like yet again. It seems like every time I get comfortable somewhere I have to leave. Sometimes I wish I could believe it was merely a dream again." When Tara emerged from her room, all of the Wing was assembled in the hall.. A drowsy Europa was fastening her sword belt over a slip, and Aleph was standing in the middle of it all, looking very distraught and confused.
Kali sighed once before telling the others, "I have no time to explain this now. You all know me, and you trust me. I have never let you down. Not once. Trust me now. We are leaving. This is not a regular patrol. We must get to our dragons as fast as possible and get out of here. We may meet resistance on the way. We may have to fight our way out of the Citadel. I have learned the identity of the Rogues, who have been pillaging with impunity across the Realities. They are none other than the Supreme Judges of the Tribunal itself! Aleph, this young Deadsponcellor we captured today, is the proof. Now that you know this, you are all marked for death. Soon this Wing will be attacked by the Personal Guards. We must leave, and leave now. We cannot let anyone get in our way. To our dragons!" Kali Yuga led the entire Wing to the elevators and they descended to the hangar level, bursting forth to retrieve their dragons from their niches.
When they entered the hangar, the dragons were already positioned for the flight. The bars on Tau's niche had been torn asunder by the other dragons, and Tau was waiting in the middle of the room for Aleph. Surprised, the dragon riders immediately mounted their dragons. Shadowdeath burned the elevator entrances, blocking them from further use. Klaxons began to sound alarms throughout the entire Citadel.
As they mounted their dragons, Kali said, "This is it. We head for the nearest cloud, and stay close together. If anyone gets in our way, we have to kill them. But stay together. We go through the cloud as a group!"
In the Judge's private quarters, Fu Manchu announced, "I think that Deadsponcellor that Kali Yuga captured, was the same one who saw us as we were beginning the raid on that village. In any event, we should kill him, and eat his brains," He paused for a moment in thought, "It seems to have taken too long for our Guards to bring him back here for interrogation. Durga, check the video monitor for the holding cells. I want to know what is going on."
Durga went over to the security monitors, and selected a view of the Holding Cells, "Lord! Come look at this!" He stepped up beside her, and saw the slain guards lying on the floor.
"Sound the Alarms! Kali Yuga has defected! She's taken the prisoner, and knows what we have been doing! We will have to kill off her entire Wing, and blame them for the massacre!"
Alarms began to sound throughout the entire Citadel calling all of the Protectors to action. Fu Manchu announced over the speakers placed in strategic places throughout the Citadel, "This is Supreme Judge of the Tribunal of the Protectors of the Order, Fu Manchu! Wing Leader Kali Yuga has gone Rogue! She and her Wing committed an atrocity. They took the heads of the people of an entire village while on Patrol! She and her Wing are now attempting to flee the Citadel at this very moment! They are to be stopped by any means necessary. They must all die! They have violated our most Sacred Oath! No quarter shall be given! They must not escape the Justice of the Order!"
Tara screamed an Oath in a language she did not know, suddenly remembering the extra people in her head. They wanted Death, but not hers for once. She growled, "Later." under her breath, readied her sword and followed the others. She let her mind wander a bit and thought, "So many Worlds, so many Clouds, so many Possibilities. There has to be a way to track them down. But, how? No time to think about this now. Once we're safe I'll try."
She glanced at the others noting that Aleph wasn't in Formation, and probably had never flown in formation before. She changed position to be within yelling range of him. "Aleph! Get between everyone, being in Formation may save our lives. I wish there was time to show you some formations but we'll have time for that later."
Aleph did as Tara said and got on his dragon. The other dragons had already flanked him, giving no choice about this anyway. The message of Fu Manchu echoed through the Hangar, bringing surprise to all of Kali's Wing. They took off as a group, heading outside, as the pandemonium built within the Citadel. "Tara, I'm scared."
Tara threw her head back and laughed insanely. "You think you're the only one? You might be scared, but I'm terrified, and I'm sure we're not the only two. Consider the rest of the Wing, they've put their Trust in the Judges for years, never even considering, that they were Hunting the wrong people. I know that if I get caught, my sword's going through my chest, I doubt they'll give us a less painful death than that. Keep your fear, Aleph, it will see you alive through many battles. Perhaps in time it will turn to Anger, or Hate, which are both very powerful things. Another thing, I'm sure of, is that the Judges are scared as well. The Truth is known."
They emerged from the hangar into a clear cloudless sky. Kali led them toward the ocean. Behind them, other Wings began to emerge from the hangars. Each in turn took a few minutes to form up, but then spotted Kali Yuga's Wing, and began to pursue. Wave after wave of dragon riders, Wing after Wing, they came, filling the sky, all with one intent, striving to close the gap. Soon there were over a hundred Wings chasing Kali Yuga and her small band.
Ganymede shouted, "There! Over there! I see it! A lenticular cloud!" He pointed, and they altered course, heading for their escape. They sped towards the cloud, and the Wings behind them altered course, as well, closing the gap a bit.
Kali roared, "Fly dragons! Fly like the wind! Fly like you've never flown before!"
As they entered the lenticular cloud, the nearest Wing behind them was only a mile away. Their dragons made a choice of vortexes without a word to their riders. It was a vortex with a silver thread winding through it. They emerged over a prairie and not far away was a second lenticular cloud.
Kali Yuga's Wing had already entered a vortex, and disappeared, when the Wing of the Judges entered the lenticular cloud just behind them. Rather than chase Kali's Wing blindly, the Judges directed each successive Wing down a different vortex, as they arrived. With hundreds of Wings at their disposal, they could spread out the search across many worlds at once.
"When you spot these Rogues, send one Protector back to us, and we will gather the Wings behind you. They must not escape! They must die!" commanded Durga.
Kali addressed her Wing, "We don't have much time. They will be fanning out through all of the vortexes in that cloud hunting us. At any time a Wing may come through, and we cannot afford to get bogged down in a battle with hundreds of reinforcements bound to join within minutes. We must get to that other cloud as fast as possible, if we are to evade them."
They entered the next cloud without a look back, and again the dragons chose another vortex for them, another one with a silver thread. When they exited the next vortex, they emerged over a rural area like a Norman Rockwell painting. Again they saw another lenticular cloud, and the dragons flew straight for it without a word from their riders. They entered the cloud, and again the dragons flew directly to another vortex with a silver thread running through it.
Metis pondered this for a moment, "Do I see a pattern here?"
Tara nodded, "I think so, Metis. I wonder if anyone else knows of this. Dragons don't seem to share their secrets too often, but I guess in a circumstance such as this, there's no choice. But is this enough for us to get away from the Protectors?"
They emerged over a great forest of Redwood trees in the mountains. Still again the dragons headed for another lenticular cloud, and entered it. But this time they chose a vortex with a thread that was alternately black and white. They emerged over a city, but something was very different. Everything was in shades of gray. There were no colors at all. Even the people below them were in black and white. Near the top of one skyscraper, was a giant ape battling several biplanes. He held a woman in one hand. He placed her down on a ledge, so he would have both arms free to fend off his attackers. The dragons flew into another lenticular cloud unnoticed by the crowds below.
Inside this cloud all of the vortexes glowed with different colors. The dragons selected one that was pink, and entered. Aleph mumbled, "I think I'm gonna be sick."
Europa flew over beside Aleph, "I'm so sorry I hit you with that shovel. I hope you can forgive me. I hate now to think of what we would never have learned had I killed you. I am so ashamed." She paused, "None of us have ever been on a ride like this before. And we are going to places we've never even suspected might exist."
Before them, the pink vortex unfolded without any end in sight.
Tara jokingly asked, "Hey, can we go back there? That was a good movie." Tara pondered the idea that people could make their own realities, or was it that King Kong was its own reality and someone stumbled across it and made a cheesy B-rate movie of it. What other movies were out there? She made a point of perhaps going in the next black and white threaded vortex she saw, if she had the chance, and wondered if the people in those worlds always had a sense of de ja vu, reliving the same movie over and over.
They emerged from the vortex into a black cloud. As they exited the cloud they beheld an unimaginably strange vista. The sky was white with no sun. Black stars twinkled in the heavens. Below them was a forest with a meadow large enough for all the dragons to land comfortably. The grass and foliage were purple. Many of the flower blossoms were green. Everything was reversed in color. The dragons settled down comfortably in the meadow and began to laugh their insanely eerie laughter.
Kali Yuga dismounted, and looked around, "Well, it's safe to say that no one will be looking for us here."
As Tara dismounted, she displayed her firm grasp on the obvious, "Hmm, photo negative. Quite interesting." She laid back on the purple grass and looked at the sky, wondering if it was really cloudy out and about to rain. She also wondered what the dragons found so amusing, but knew she probably would never figure it out. She opened the bottle of wine and took a drink from it. "Wine anyone? I just hope it doesn't make us too sober." Tara laughed, but really wondered what else was reversed in this strange place.
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